I remember sitting in my 7th grade French class at Hart Middle School dreaming about the day that I would be sitting near the Eiffel Tower engulfing in a buttery croissant in the heart of Paris. I remember hearing all about Le Louvre, Eiffel Tower, Arc d’ Triomphe, and Champs Elysees as I dozed off into never never land. However, who knew 8 years later that my dream would finally become a reality. It wasn’t until I started strolling around the Bastille (where our hotel was located) and falling in love with the aromas of bakeries that all of it was real life. It all was happening to ME. Of course with my four other crazy friends who were infatuated with the city as much as I was , there was never a dull moment. When we first existed the bus that we took from the plane, a man chomping on the sickest dognut in the world looks me in the eye with a thick French accent and yells to us 'AEROPORT????' i immediatly looked to my left at Arielle and practically rolled up into a ball and cried with laughter. I couldn't help it..the sensation of uncontrollable laughter overtook my whole body like an excorism.
Anyways... the first restaurant we stopped at was right in the Bastille, where I had the best salad in my entire life. I know, you may think “why did you order a salad in Paris?” but believe me there were no regrets. The wine tasted like water and with great friends by your side, we were just looking fine and drinking wine! After we got fuel in our systems, our first stop was Le Louvre, which is situated in the center of Paris between the river Seine and Rue de Rivoli to scope out the Mona Lisa (typical tourists!) and also to meet Paul and his friend Martin, later to be known as the moustache man. We anxiously sat and had wine at Café Marley, which was a very classy restaurant right across from le Louvre. Once we met up with them (the moustache man has an immediate attraction to Taylor), we headed to Shakespeare and Co. where Ernest Hemingway wrote some of his classic novels. The building was the cutest little bookstore I have ever seen, with shelves piled high on top of each other and vibrant book covers popping out in all directions…. no wonder it was a hotspot for tourists and Europeans alike! After our little pit stop, we headed over to the supermarket to stock on some pre-game necessities (vino) to kick off our wild night. Unfortunately, I desperately needed a razor to shave my legs and since I could not take one on the flight there, I started strolling down random walkways by myself, hoping to run into a pharmacy. When I finally discovered the pharmacy, I walked up to the lady at the desk who spoke a little English and asked her if she sold them. She laughed and told me to try a supermarket because of their wider selection, so I proceeded to do so. When I FINALLY found one, I walked into the “personal care” section and to my dismay, there were none in sight. Frustrated, I asked the sales clerk where I could find a little razor and he laughed at me, smiled, and said “we don’t use those.” So now it is a true fact: the French do not use such necessities.
Anyways, after getting all dolled up and feeling good, we headed over to local restaurant where Taylor claimed she had the best cheeseburger of her entire life, while Paul had a pizza with a cracked egg on top. Once we polished three bottles (child’s play) we went to a bar where I first tried Pastis (which tasted like black licorice and is Paul’s favorite.) When the girls decided to head out toward the Bastille, Paul, Martin and I jumped on the metro and headed to see some of their French friends. While there, I tried to talk a little French to these three men but the conversation ended with me giving out my e-mail address because I still do not have a phone…I may or may not have gave them my home phone number (mom if your reading this I greatly apologize haha). We ended the night with a BANG and strolled into our hotel at around 3am (which is typical for the Italians but apparently not the French)
The next day, we headed to Le Louvre and actually toured a little of the museum where we saw famous pieces of art done by Rembrandt, Rubens, Fragonard and Titian. Did you know that the Louvre is so enormous that it would take 9 months just to look at every piece of artwork? That is AWEsome. After our sophisticated analysis on various pieces if art, we headed toward the main strip of Champs Elysees to window shop. As I was walking along the sidewalk, my heart sank when I saw the 6 story Louis Vuitton store in front of my eyes. This was paradise in paradise! After we looked around and reality hit that my life savings could not even afford a wallet, we proceeded to go to Chanel. To our surprise, it was a lot harder to find that you think…we had to stroll down random side streets in order to get to our destination. On the way, we saw the most mesmerizing hotel in all of the land called Le Bristol…I am getting married in there. No excuses. Once we found Chanel, Taylor bought these rocking flats that had white C’s on the toe…we must have missed something because when we came out of the store there were French arm guards with shields and bullet proof gear on. It turned out there was an Israel protest of some sort and the Middle-Easterners were yelling and holding up signs in Arabic….when in France I guess!
After our adventures, we came back to the Bastille to get ready for another wild night out. We ended up going to Chez Ferdiand, which was the best restaurant I have ever been to in my whole entire life (and I LOVE to eat). The waiters were sexy and the owner was smoking for his age (he apparently is 65). The men at the table next to us bought us free alcohol after our meals and proceed to invite us to a discothèque Mantra, which was right around the corner. Without a second thought, we nodded our heads and left to do get our groove on. While there, the men that came with us bought us countless free drinks....however, the French can’t dance for crap. They just bounce up and down and throw their fingers in the air…Babel would be disgusted at their dance moves…After a while, Kelsey and Taylor really wanted to go pop champagne under the Eiffel Tower, so I had round up Arielle and my little Indian nugget Preeya. While trying to get a cab to take us to the Eiffel Tower, Preeya was hammered and dropped the champagne bottle all over the side of the road. It was hilarious at the time, but since Kelsey and Taylor were expecting us to be there (because they left before us) it was very frustrating. Preeya then proceeded to buy a 25 Euro bottle of Wine from a random store and when we were SOL of finding any taxi at 3 am..we sat down on a bench and popped that bad boy open on the side of the street. While we were laughing about the night, we met some friends and shared some wine with them…it was becoming overcrowded so I just got up and sat on some stairs right across from the bench. When I was least expecting it, a woman came up to me and proceeded to hand me a Euro…SHE THOUGHT I WAS HOMELESS!! I declined the offer but almost peed my pants on how awkward the conversation and situation was…the people in France thought I was a bum. AWESOME. Finally, we found a taxi and since it was now roughly 5 am in Paris, we gave up meeting Kelsey and Taylor and went back to the Bastille for a good night’s sleep.
The next day, we all woke up feeling like we got hit by a tram, run over by a bus and got blind- sided by a plane. Of course that didn’t stop us. Not ONE bit. We quickly strolled to the Eiffel Tower which was occupied by weird Algerians dressed in gorilla costumes (who were loving Kelsey). Unfortunately, before we knew it, it was time to pack up and leave the classy city of Paris. We defiantly put a huge dent into that city….. WHAT A WILD WILD WEEKEND.
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